


Habit

by Kestrealbird



Category: Lupin III
Genre: Gen, Good Dad Zenigata, Humor, Sweet and soft, Various Interpol OC's
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 21:29:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16104155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kestrealbird/pseuds/Kestrealbird
Summary: Inspector Zenigata's subordinates have picked up a curious habit. He's not entirely opposed to it.





	Habit

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what this is but it's based on a HC of mine that I hold dear to my heart so take whatever this nonsense is

If anyone were to ask Officer Michaels how it all started, he’d place the blame on Miss Lucinda who works in records because she’s always been an odd one obsessed with setting trends. Miss Lucinda will deny the claim, and instead point fingers at Yata or Oscar, both of whom refuse to say a word on the subject no matter how much people might badger them over it. 

Thomason, meek as he is, will blame himself, but everyone agrees that he’s too sweet and jittery to shoulder said blame. Captain Olbry says it’s just a trend and that eventually it’ll “die out” and be forgotten. He’s been saying that for over 20 years. Maybe, if he says it enough, it’ll come true and he can go back to pretending that Zenigata doesn't exist. 

It stopped being a “trend” after the first fifty slip-ups and ‘just a slip of the tongue, sir’s. You see the thing about Interpol is that, if you work under Inspector Zenigata, at some point in your career he stops being ‘Inspector’ and becomes ‘Pops’ and nothing else. The first one - on record, anyway - to slip up is Roza, who blurts out “thanks Pops” when Zenigata saves her glasses from falling into a fishbowl in the office. 

She stutters out an apology. Inspector Zenigata waves her off with a sigh. That should’ve been the end of it, but it isn't. Shirou, who works with computers, calls the Inspector ‘Pops’ while he’s talking to his auntie down the phone. He gets teased for days on end but swears it was only one time. His aunt will tell you otherwise. Lucinda stumbles while dealing with a call about a break in. “Inspector Pops will be there shortly.” She assures the frantic teenager down the phone and doesn't realize her slip-up until later.

Zenigata approaches her after the break-in is dealt with and, amused, asks, “Inspector Pops, huh?”. She doesn't notice how flustered he is about it. Doesn't see the high blush on his cheeks, the smile on his face. Lucinda apologizes profusely and runs off before Zenigata can tell her he doesn't mind, not really. 

Officer Michaels blames his slip-up on blood loss and head injury. Everyone knows that he’s had a rough-life. Zenigata starts treating him to meals and giving small pats of approval when he can. Yata and Oscar address him as “Pops” during a meeting with their superiors and are met with a long string of exasperated sighs and sympathetic looks. 

“There are worse habits they could’ve picked up from him,” Zenigata mutters into his bowl of beef ramen, three cups of sake already gone. Yata says nothing. In all his thirty plus years of working with Interpol, Zenigata has gotten used to being called ‘Pops’. Eventually you learn that he doesn't mind being addressed as such, as long as you don't do so in front of the man who  _ actually _ started the habit. 

The higher-ups hate it. Naturally, this just pushes Zenigata’s subordinates to say it more. A passive act of defiance. Lupin will have a field day when he finds out about it. 

At some point, in his thirty plus years of service, Inspector Zenigata became “Pops.” He’s not nearly as opposed to the notion as he probably should be.


End file.
